Il graffito di Dio

The article proposes a semiotic reflection on the ‘conditions of enunciation’ of graffiti in order to understand the essential features of the relation between this expressive form and the concept of power. Daniel 5, the Biblical passage that narrates the episode of Belshazzar’s feast, is adopted as a point of departure for the construction of a textual series, which explores a philological tradition as well. Jewish interpretations, Christian exegeses, Christian iconography, and intertextual transpositions, all related to this biblical passage, are analyzed so as to determine the ways in which different socio-cultural contexts, in different periods, interpret and express the relation between political power, its injustice, and the role of ‘God’s writing on the wall’ in redressing it.